Out of breath

I believe the phrase "sucking wind" applies to me whenever I find myself attempting any kind of very vigorous exercise.

This past Friday night...Team Training again...Treadmill Running Intervals Round #2.

Argh.

We're supposed to do .25 miles at a low-intensity brisk walk or slow jog. Then .5 miles at our high-intensity interval - for me this is supposed to be 4.9 mph.

Ummm....yeah....not so much.

I manage to get the treadmill going up to 4.6 mph for .18 miles, but am so out of breath (aka "sucking wind") after less than a quarter mile that I drop back down to a more reasonable 3.9 mph. My breathing takes several minutes to sort itself into something less frantic and intense.

"How are you doing over here" trainer A asks as he peers over my treadmill readout to see that I am back down in the "low-intensity" interval.

"Old, fat and tired," I huff at him in frustration.

"Well, I wouldn't agree with those first two," he says carefully, obviously somewhat taken aback by my gruff answer.

He chats with me a bit about the fact that I'm so out of breath and eventually ends the conversation by saying, "No one expects every single person in the Challenge to be able to run a mile. That's not what this is about. It's about losing weight and getting fit."

Thanks, A, appreciate the kind words, although if I can't jog my mile at 4.9 mph on the last day of the Challenge then it means that I will not reach my fit goal of lopping 20% off of my original run (actually that would be WALK) time.

So, while everyone else pounds their way through their intervals, I settle on keeping my treadmill pace at 3.9 - 4.0 mph where my heart rate is still up, but I don't feel nauseated or like I cannot breathe.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. My "Low-n-Loaded" class is not running so I decide to hit "Cardio Kickboxing" instead.

More frustration.

More sucking wind.

The class is fast paced, which is difficult for me. I'm winded almost immediately. However, I try my best to keep up. When I simply cannot sustain a particular exercise I do what I do in D's "Low-n-Loaded" class - I march in place while I try to catch my breath. At 40 minutes into the class I am extremely overheated, my face once again resembling a bright red radish. And I am nauseated. So I take a few sips of water and duck out the door of the exercise room to walk around the gym - trying to slow my heart rate a bit, catch my breath and avoid barfing.

After 5 minutes of cooling down, I head back into the group exercise room to finish as much of the class as I can, which isn't much...

I am frustrated by the limitations of my body. I know, I know...my body is absolutely getting stronger and I can certainly do more now than I could a few months ago. However, I wish that my stupid lungs would catch up with the rest of my body and get with the d@#$ program already.

I'm tired of sucking wind.